Thank you for all the great reviews! (Does Happy Dance)

Mari
svu101
tutorgrl323
TroyGabriella 4 eva
x3 Gabriella Montez x3
Gabriella Montez-Bolton
singergirl
Seeria Nix
TaYMcCarthaY
ZacEfronLuver
peachie1st
toxic element

Special Thanks To:

Monica7725: Thank you for helping me with my Spanish.

Gabriella Bolton: I can't even begin to tell you how happy I was after reading your review. But it made me so happy when you told me that you liked my writing, especially as you are older than me. You really did make my day. Thank you SO much. I looked into the míja/hija ordeal, and apparently, both can be used. Thank you for pointing it out though; it gave me some more insight into Spanish!

Renda: Favorite story? Thank you so much!

Thanks to Chantal Elizabeth for helping me with this. You know this would NOT have gotten finished if you hadn't helped me. I love you hon, thanks so much!

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters. I don't even own any money because I lost my purse three weeks ago. So sue me, and you get nothing. All I own is this plotline and my obsession for this movie.

Something I forgot to mention before: I have no beta so all mistakes made are by yours truly. Oh, and I spelled nicely wrong in the author's note in the first chapter… How did I get into 8th grade without being able to spell NICELY I don't know. I'm too lazy to upload the chapter with the right spelling, so sorry, the "nisely" is staying there. And it was a typo. Just to let you know. I'm not a COMPLETE idiot, although my friends may disagree… anyways. Wow. I ramble on these author's notes A LOT. Once again, thank you for flying Rhea's Rambling Airways. You may now exit the flight.

Recap:

"Hey," Troy's warm voice answered. "You doing anything today?"

Gabriella could feel her heart speed up. Was he going to…?

"…'cause me, Chad and Taylor were going to go ice-skating, and we were wondering if you wanted to come," he continued.

"I don't know Troy, I don't really feel like skating today," Gabriella said hesitantly.

"Oh. Okay then. I'll talk to you later," Troy said, quite evidently disappointed. "Bye."

Just go out and have fun!" Ms. Montez said.

Gabriella consented, and called Troy back.

"Hello?" Troy answered

"When are you guys leaving?" Gabriella asked him.

End Recap.

-HSM-Troyella-HSM-Troyella-HSM-

Gabriela rushed around the house, trying to find her favorite pair of jeans. After about forty-five minutes of scurrying around the house, she was finally ready for Troy, Chad and Taylor to pick her up. Just as she put the final touches on her make-up, the doorbell rang. She checked herself in the mirror one last time before dashing down the stairs. She opened the door and smiled. Her mother came up behind her.

"Nice to see you again Troy. I see you used the front door today," Ms. Montez teased.

Troy however, didn't hear the humorous tone in her voice and became flustered. Seeing this, Gabriella came to his rescue.

"Relax, she was joking," she assured.

"Oh," Troy said, feeling a little stupid.

Gabriella turned to her mother and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"I'll give you a call if we stay out past eleven."

"Okay míja, have fun!" Ms. Montez called out to her daughter, who was walking back to the car with Troy. Gabriella may not have noticed, but Ms. Montez wasn't blind. She could plainly see how much the two teens liked each other. I'll let them figure it out themselves… she told herself, and walked back inside the house.

-HSM-Troyella-HSM-Troyella-HSM-

The four friends walked into the rink, and put their stuff down on the side bleachers. They paid for their skates and started to put them on. Troy looked over to Gabriella, and noticed that she was just staring at the skates, not putting them on. Chad and Taylor asked Troy if he was coming. He motioned for them to continue on without him. They shrugged and walked off. Troy walked over to whereGabriella was, and sat down next to her.

"You know that they won't allow you on the rink until you have your skates on, right?"

"Huh?" Gabriella looked up in surprise. She hadn't even noticed he was there.

"What's wrong?" Troy asked, worry evident in his voice.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about my dad," she replied sadly. Troy froze. He didn't know anything about Mr. Montez. They had never talked about him before. He figured that she would tell him when she wanted to. It seemed like this was the time.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked softly. His question was met with silence.

"He," she took a breath, "he passed away when I was ten. Car crash. He always told me that he had a dream that I would be a world famous ice-skater. I loved my dad." Her voice broke. She had thought that she would have been able to do this, but looking at these skates made all those feelings come back. "He spoiled me like no one else. When he told me about his dream, I immediately worked hard to make it come true. Three weeks after I started skating lessons, the accident happened. I quit my lessons. I haven't skated in seven years."

Gabriella broke off, and silent tears poured down her face. Troy put his arms around her and brought her into a comfortable hug, and she sobbed quietly into him. He felt that she needed protection, and he was going to be the one to offer it to her. He held her tighter, but not so that she felt suffocated. They sat there for a while, clinging on to each other. Soon, Gabriela's tears subsided, and she grew quiet. Slowly she pulled away from Troy. Suddenly she started giggling. Troy gave her a confused look. Either he was suddenly dressed like a clown, and he didn't notice, or she was going through some major mood swings.

"Your-jacket-ruined-I-I'm-sorry!" she said between laughs.

Troy looked down at his jacket and saw it completely damp. He joined Gabriella in laughing. Slowly their laughter died off. Each was left with a small smile on their face. Troy raised his hand and wiped off some stray tears that were remaining on Gabriella's face. They looked towards the rink and saw Chad and Taylor holding each others hands and skating happily. Realizing the awkward position they were in, they looked at each other nervously. Troy smiled.

"You wanna just sit here?" he asked. "We don't have to skate if you don't want. We can just sit and talk," Troy offered.

He's so sweet, Gabriella thought. The least I can do is skate with him.

"No, I'd feel really bad. You came here to skate. Come on, we'll skate." Gabriella insisted. She started putting on her skates.

"Don't worry about it. If it makes you uncomfortable, we don't have to do it."

"That's sweet of you, but I think it helped just to talk to you about it. My mom and I talked about it after it happened, but we haven't talked about it in years. It was just something I needed to talk to someone about. Thanks Troy." Gabriella gave him a smile that made his heart melt.

Troy blushed and muttered, "It was nothing." He looked down at his feet and asked hesitantly, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, let's go," Gabriella said rising, and she took Troy's hand in her own and pulled him up. She couldn't help but think about how right this felt, his hand in hers. It was like they fit perfectly together. Little did she know that Troy was thinking the same thing. I wish that we could be like this forever. Hand in hand. Forever. He liked the sound of that.

They walked onto the rink quietly, both lost in their own thoughts. Suddenly, a skater whizzed past Gabriella, and bumped into her. Losing her balance, she grabbed onto Troy to stabilize herself. Unfortunately for the both of them, Troy was unprepared for the sudden movement and he lost his balance as well. He toppled over and fell with Gabriella. They started laughing at the situation. That is, until they realized what position they were in. Gabriella was flat on her back on the ice, and Troy had landed on top of her. The laughter quickly died out, and they made the biggest mistake, or maybe the best move of their lives: they looked into each other's eyes. As her brown eyes looked into his blue, their heads moved closer. Troy had had enough waiting and he closed the remaining space in between their lips. Gabriella returned the kiss, wasting no time. They pulled away only when oxygen was necessary, and immediately brought their lips together again. Unknown to them, they were being watched carefully.

"Do you think we should tell them?"

"Nahh, they look pretty comfortable where they are. Besides, I don't want to interrupt them… again."

"Yeah, Troy looked pretty mad after the game. You really have bad timing."

"I know. But this makes up for it right?"

"Yup, and you even get a special treat."

"Ooh, present time! What is it?"

"This." And on that final word, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. She pulled away and looked at his stunned face.

"Wow. I have got to start knocking into more lovers in denial." Chad said, before pulling Taylor in for another kiss.

End Author's Note:

Well, that's it! Hope you guys enjoyed it, if you did, please review! If you didn't leave me some constructive criticism please! I'll take it nicely I promise!

I think I like the father-daughter bonding thing that I had going on in this story… anybody agree? I don't know, I thinkI like the idea of him dying better than him being abusive or leaving them. Not that those fics are bad. They make for a very drama-filled story. And who doesn't love a story filled with drama? I just like the idea of them not being threatened. Oh, and I have a feeling that Chad was a little OOC at the end, but (shrugs) it was needed. This was originally going to be a one-shot, but as I started writing it, I realized how long it was, and decided to break it up into chapters, so it ended as a two-shot.

Read Review! Tell me which chapter you liked better, what I could have improved on, whatever you like!

♥ ♥

Srijoni Rhea